Maybe it's only the handful of players that have been unprofessional that have spoken out that really care if "Little Person Big World" is there or not? Maybe the other players know that the owners are more to blame then "little person buttman" dur hur

It's unfair, Bettman can use the corporations to his advantage. It's not the players who are greedy, it's the owners.

I fixed it for you.

While Bettman deserves the criticism, I believe the owners themselves are equally responsible. Yes, I am talking about Mr. Illitch and every other owner of every NHL team. Lets keep that in mind.

if people want a single person to blame on the league side it should be jeremy jacobs, owner of the bruins and head of the negotiating committee. that guy is 10x worse than bettman is.

Its very easy to read the public hate against Bettman. At the same time, every owner is skating away scott free and free of criticism. Read twitter and other social networking sites, and you will see that Bettman is discussed with vile hatred. This is why the owners hired him to be their mouthpiece. People can and should be reminded that when this is over and Bettman is either retained or fired, that the owners do not deserve a nickel of your hard earned money. Neither do the players at this junction. The NHL should fall into even worse shape so they are forced to drop ticket prices and plead with the fans to come back to the sport. The NHL owners and players should really feel like they got kicked in the nuts by the fans after this debacle.

We’ve all forgotten what the definition of commissioner used to be. It’s faded over the last couple of decades. Call me naïve but last time I checked Bettman is the commissioner of the league. That includes the owners, players, zamboni drivers and Blackhawks Ice Girls. When exactly did the word commissioner become “puppet for the owners?”

otherwise i agree with his premise that bettman needs to go. regardless of whether he's doing the owners bidding or not, his image alone is a bad one for the league. as marketing 101 goes: "perception = reality"

That is a good article on explaining why Bettman is a terrible commissioner. It's not just irrational hate.

It also verifies another important point that's not being talked about when people compare this negotiation to the NFL and NBA CBA talks. Aside from the fact that the NBA also greatly increased revenue sharing in their deal, have a soft cap and a luxury tax, they're paying every single penny of player contracts that were signed before the new CBA. Only in the NHL is this considered an absolute necessity to renegotiate existing deals. And the players have even agreed to it, which didn't happen in the NBA.

Again, maybe Bettman is right. Maybe they should give some money back for the betterment of the league, but that sales job has to be the best he’s ever done. He needed to go “door to door” to each player and sell that -- if it could be sold at all. The NBA tried to sell it and it got shoved right back in their faces. No player in either of those leagues with an existing contract is making less than their contract called for after their labor issues were resolved. Under the current NHL revenue intake players are being asked to give back 12.3 percent of their current salaries, unless they can change the formula and make good on those lost wages. That’s an argument that simply can’t be made or needs to be made with a whole lot more tact. It’s breaking their contracts. Why doesn’t Bettman see how important that is to a person?

Another important point I've been trying to make that the article states well:

Let me be clear, Bettman might be right about every aspect of this fight (though he’s not), yet he’s still in the wrong. Simply put, his bedside manner has been horrific. His negotiating tactics have been awful. We’ve all forgotten what the definition of commissioner used to be. It’s faded over the last couple of decades. Call me naïve but last time I checked Bettman is the commissioner of the league. That includes the owners, players, zamboni drivers and Blackhawks Ice Girls. When exactly did the word commissioner become “puppet for the owners?” He should be held to a higher standard and that includes in the negotiating process, even if he is representing the owners.

It comes down to the part of his job as defined in the NHL constitution that is to protect the integrity and public faith in the league. There he has failed again and again.

No matter when the NHL season resumes, I hope they get rid of Bettman. If the league loses an entire season again, firing him is an absolute necessity.

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Kierkegaard

it should not take 48 hrs to decide to meet someone or not. the lack of urgency displayed by both sides during this entire lockout has been pathetic.

Yeah seriously I am just waiting for the usual "there is enough time to get a deal done left" someone better tell both parties that even the biggest and hockey craziest markets have abandoned the NHL for the time being.